What Adoptees Deserve from Their Birth Mothers

Remember the metaphor of the Great Eagle and the eaglet? I’ll be the eaglet today and tell you how it felt when I stepped on to the wing of the Great Eagle. Remember…the pain of the nest was too much for me…I couldn’t stand it….I cried to get out of the pain of the past…and then I caught a glimpse of the Great Eagle’s wing. It’s strength, beauty, and power.

My life is going to be so good. To think that I’ve found this mystery mother is incredible. Wow, I can see so much further now than every before, up here out the nest. Will you take me up on your wing and teach me to fly, Great Eagle? Look! I might get to meet her and see if I look like her. Take me up higher, Great Eagle! I love being out of the nest.”

The woman who found Elizabeth, my birth mother, acted as an intermediary. She talked with my birth mother after I gave her three questions. And, by the way, I believe all mothers owe it to their children to have at least one conversation with the children they carried to birth.

My questions were like many adoptees:-What is my nationality?
-What is the family medical history?
-Who is my birth father?

At that point, through tears, I said, “Please thank her for giving me the gift of life.”

Soon, the intermediary called. “Your mother wants no more contact with you,” she said. “She was stunned and needs to give the matter more thought.”

Suddenly, the “call waiting signal” clicked.

“That must be your mother,” the intermediary said. “Yes! It is and she wants to talk with you right away.”